Now that her energy had been boosted, she opened her eyes to try and reassure Mike even as she felt herself start to shiver. “Monster grabbed me on my way home. Not their fault.” She heard several curses from the men around her as Mike frowned, then glanced at the monster and sighed.
“I’m not sure if your luck is good or bad. You’ve nearly died twice in one day, but somehow come out alright.” He shook his head, then observed the men, who had split into three groups. One was cleaning up the monster corpse, one was guarding the perimeter, and the other was hovering around her, Mike, and the man. He stood, nodding to them. “Alright. Lady Jade already did the hard work. All both of them need is rest. Make sure he doesn’t go out on patrol for at least a few days so his body can recover the blood he’s lost.”
“Red meat will help,” Jade weakly interjected. Mike studied her curiously. “It helps the red blood cell count to recover because it increases iron absorption.” Most of them were now staring at her as if she was speaking a foreign language, which she supposed she was. She just smiled weakly again and said, “Just do it.”
Mike alternated between nodding and shaking his head, before looking at the commander dude, who vaguely reminded her of Jarom in his gladiator-like visage. “He shouldn’t need my help, but keep an eye on him. If anything changes, send for me immediately. Do as Lady Jade says and have him eat some beef.”
“Very well. And the lady?” the gladiator commander responded to Mike.
Mike sighed. “I’ll need help getting her back to The Green Dragon. They’ll take care of her after that.” As soon as the words Green Dragon came out, she heard a couple sharp intakes of breath. Apparently, they hadn’t connected the fact that she’d lit up like a lightbulb, healed the dude, and was being called a Lady with the fact that she was a student of Dracona.
The commander was frowning, but he nodded. “Jacobs, Tanner, Bick, escort the doctor and Lady Jade back to The Green Dragon and then report back.”
“Yes, sir!” She felt more than heard the bass rumble of the man propping her up as he answered his commander. “Sorry about this, Milady.” Before she could protest, he’d scooped her princess style into his arms. Frowning, she reached up and pulled her hood up, then pulled her cloak up so it covered her too and the blood she’d spilled was no longer visible. She then relaxed, just letting herself be carried. She didn’t like it, but she also wasn’t entirely sure how far they were from The Green Dragon. She didn’t know how far the monster had carried her, honestly. She didn’t want to be stubborn and try walking an unknown distance when she felt so weak.
Therefore, she pushed her stubbornness aside and whispered, “It’s alright. Thank you.”
He seemed shocked that she’d thank him, as did the two guards who were escorting them out of the alley who had also heard her. They walked in silence until she started to recognize her surroundings. Thinking of something, she absently asked Mike, “How much is everyone going to freak out about this?”
Mike gave her a considering glance while the guards all seemed to tense a little bit. Finally, he remarked, “I’m surprised you’re not panicking about this. In all likelihood though…it’s not going to be pretty.”
The guard holding her had tensed up even more, and she sighed before whispering, “I’m a new traveler, and I’ve become close with several of the royal family. You might want to warn your boss that they’re likely to freak out.” Though he looked a little baffled at her word choice—apparently ‘freak out’ wasn’t something they said here—he seemed to get the gist of the message.
“Noted. Thank you for the warning.” They went silent as they continued to walk, and she took a moment to click on the new blinking red dot.
Warning. Siphon target Mesmer has died. Remaining siphon duration has been canceled.
Well, that was new, and good to know. She hadn’t even realized the itching had stopped after the creature’s death. She quickly pulled up her skills list, searching for one in particular...and there it was.
Mana Sense
Beginner 1
20%
It had still shown up, though it was as if it had barely had time to register. Still, she supposed it was better than nothing. This meant two things: she could siphon from monsters, and if someone she was siphoning died, it stopped at whatever progress it had already made or something like that. She wasn’t sure, but that was her guess. She’d have to think about it more.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” the guard holding her whispered his question.
She realized she was shaking pretty badly, and he could feel the vibrations from her body. She sighed and whispered back, “I just need food, then I’ll be fine.” It seemed that was her comfort in this world. Whenever anything was wrong? Just feed her and it would go away. She felt him almost imperceptibly pick up the pace a little bit.
They stopped when they got near The Green Dragon. Stephen was standing in front of the door consulting with a couple of other people, and there were people coming up periodically, seemingly reporting, getting barked instructions from Stephen, and then leaving again. Concerned, Mike stepped forward and quickly walked towards Stephen, the guards following silently behind him, now fully alert once more. “Stephen, is something wrong? Is someone hurt?”
Stephen sighed, raking a hand through his lush, dark hair. “Mike! Have you seen Jade? No one has seen her in hours. Scott said she left the library, but she should have been back by now. We heard there’s a mesmer on the loose, and she’s likely to be a–why do you have guards with you? What’s that in your arms?” He seemed to finally have noticed Mike’s shadows.
Jade struggled a little bit, and the man holding her, whose name she realized she’d forgotten to get, but it was either Jacobs, Tanner, or Bick—although those sounded like last names to her—seemed to realize she wanted down. He gently set her on her feet and she reached up, pulling her hood down as she smiled wanly at Stephen. “Hi. You can call back the search teams now. The mesmer is dead. Can you get them to make me something to eat?”
The guards were looking distinctly uncomfortable at her way of announcing she was back, but Stephen just took a few steps forward, holding onto her shoulders and inspecting her, taking note of the bloodstains going down her face. “You’re okay?” he questioned, and she nodded. She was surprised when he then pulled her into his arms, hugging her. “For heaven’s sake, this is twice in one day, you know. Please stop scaring us.” He spoke at barely a whisper, but she knew most of the people around them had still heard it because of the way they were staring.
For her part, she just took comfort in his arms, silently letting the tears fall at last, finally feeling safe again. She hadn’t realized just how much she was suppressing her fear. Stephen scooped her up, nodding to one of his subordinates, or at least she assumed that’s what they were from the way he was ordering them about. That dude then started to relay instructions to call off the search while Stephen ignored the guards and carried her inside while she cried silently into his chest.
“You found her!”
“Is she okay?”
“What happened?”
“Where was she!?”
A clamor of voices started as soon as Stephen walked through the door with her in his arms. She could feel people crowding towards them, their familiar voices making her cry harder. She knew she was a mess and wanted to stop crying, but she couldn’t seem to.
Above her, she felt Stephen’s chest rumble as he chided, “Calm down. She’s okay. She needs to eat again, so…” He didn’t even finish that sentence before she could hear someone, most likely Kaylee or Jessica, scurrying off towards the kitchen. “Alright, let’s hold off on any questions until she’s eaten.” He was obviously trying to buy her time to get herself under control, and she appreciated it, but it apparently was only going to make her cry harder, her little sobs slowly becoming audible.